“This is a really useful piece of kit which could be providing a hugely beneficial service to a child somewhere that is being wasted because no one can be bothered to pick it up.”

He added: “the paperwork clearly states “property of the NHS”.

“To have it lying around when children are going without is dreadful.”

New analysis shows one in five children in need of a wheelchair are waiting more than 18 weeks for it, with a postcode lottery in provision across the country.

In some parts of the country less than one in three children in need of the equipment received it within this time.

This is despite the NHS signing a wheelchair charter four years ago which promised that provision should be equal for all.

Campaigners have said the shortages meant children were being left stuck at home, unable to go to school.

Imogen suffers with with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome and relies on a wheelchairCredit:
Andrew Fox

Mr James’s daughter Imogen, who suffers with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, grew out of her NHS-issued wheelchair after the age of 16, which is the cut-off for free eligibility.

Her parents then bought a larger replacement themselves.

He said: “When I was in the Army, I you sign a piece of paper when you borrow a piece of kit and when you no longer need it you give it back.

“That way it keeps getting reused until it comes to the end of its life.”

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, whose predecessor organisation commissioned the wheelchair, said wheelchair services had since been contracted out by local clinical commissioning groups to Millbrook Healthcare.

A spokesman for the company said its contract stipulates that wheelchairs are collected within 10 days of patients calling to arrange collection.